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Curry of Cold Roast Beef

A curry made with sliced cold roast beef, onions, butter, stock, flour, and curry powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Curry of Cold Roast Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the cold roast beef into small, square pieces.

  2. Dredge the pieces with flour.

  3. Finely chop the onion.

Cook the curry

  1. Fry the onion in butter in a chafing dish.

  2. Add the stock and curry powder.

  3. Stir in the beef pieces.

  4. Let the mixture simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cold roast beef
Provides the main protein, which is already cooked and only needs warming through in the sauce.
Flour
Coats the beef so the curry sauce thickens and clings to the meat.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it fries in butter, forming the flavour base of the sauce.
Butter
Fat that carries the curry powder's flavour and helps fry the onion evenly.
Stock
Liquid that forms the sauce and moistens the beef as it simmers.
Curry powder
Supplies the spice blend that gives the dish its characteristic aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Dredging the beef in flour. Flour on the meat's surface gelatinises in the hot liquid, thickening the sauce and helping it cling to the beef. Coat the pieces evenly so the sauce does not turn lumpy or thin.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, flour, butter):

  1. Chivefits about as well
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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